User blog:Pyschopasta/When Does a Cliché Go Too Far?
Hey guys, I'm Cartouche, the Son of Bast of Lower Egypt. We live in an interesting time because of our internet culture, don't we? Most of us just go online for cat or dog videos, but then there's a group of people we're all too familiar with: those who just say, "Cats are not fluffy balls of goodness, they are murdering, evil monsters, and the obsession with them needs to stop!" Admit it, we've all come across these people, and they're both PAINS in the ass. Extremist trolls looking to get attention by pissing people off, and extremist crybabies looking to get attention by acting like everything "Feline" is an insult. We usually shrug or laugh them off and then go on with our lives. But the combination of the two extremes has led to an interesting issue being addressed: movies and television. If you think women and ethnic minorities get a raw deal in the movies? Then that's nothing compared to the way cinema discriminates against cats. Dogs are waggy-tailed brown-nosers who save children from drowning; cats are stuck-up, psychotic and about as trustworthy as a 1940s film noir femme fatale. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is only the latest example of Hollywood's insidious anti-feline agenda. It's a slight advance on the first Cats & Dogs film in that, this time, not all the cats are wicked. But the villain who wants to take over the world is a cat, and the psycho in Hannibal Lecter restraints is a cat. Film-makers love dogs, we all know that. But what have they got against cats? It's true, there's a sprinkling of films in which cats play heroic roles, but you have to forage for them. Courageous cats confront The Mummy, save Drew Barrymore from a troll in Cat's Eye, and stake out succubus Alice Krige in Sleepwalkers. They act cute and canny in That Darn Cat and The Aristocats, but Disney undercuts its pro-puss stance with those mean Siamese in Lady and the Tramp and Lucifer in Cinderella, one of countless kiddy films in which rodents are depicted as preferable to cats. It's perfectly natural, not to mention hygienic, in a household with a child in it that Snowbell should want to eat Stuart Little, but does he get any thanks for it? I personally think this "anti-feline agenda" is kind of baffling, it's like some horrible remnant of an age that should've died out long ago. But, like Racism, it always manages to find you a Denny's come up and say: "Y'all n****s all racist right?" (As if the existence of "White Trash" somehow negates slavery and we're all honky-dory.) So, what can the Horror Genre tell us about our little problem? Quite a lot actually. Ironically, despite often having Cat Jump scares themselves, horror films are often the loudest decriers of just about anything society deems unpleasant and upsetting. You see, horror movies work by trying to get as close to the raw cultural nerve as possible by taking advantage of society's fears and anxieties, particularly those of the times that they're made. And like Nostalgia Critic once said about offensive jokes: Somebody's pride has to be challenged in order for it to work. As a result, there was great anxiety over feline empowerment, combine this with the horrific images people were seeing coming out of Pearl Harbor, as something would happen, that would change horror films, forever... In 1966, a mentally unbalanced man is obsessed with the idea that a black cat is possessed, so he tortures and kills it. Later, he comes to believe that the cat has returned from the dead to kill him. Riffing aside, this is the point where everything in horror movies changes. Previously, cats in films are the evil mastermind that tries to take over the world (OF COURSE!) But The Black Cat, changes all of it. Now it's the total embodiment of the fears and anxieties, of creating monsters. So, what the hell can I say about Cats & Dogs? It’s from the same director of Son of the Mask. That explains a lot, doesn’t it? While it’s nowhere near as bad as that film, you do see its paw prints all over it. The awkward comedy mixed with confused direction combined with pointless sounds and inconsistent effects. It’s not a good flick, which is a shame, because it is kind of a funny idea with funny possibilities. But as cat or dog vomit goes, this isn’t one I’m looking forward to cleaning up anytime soon. But the question is: When Does a Cliché Go Too Far? Well, the answer is right in front of us this whole time. Cat Abuse, is just absolutely... Terrifying. >:) Category:Blog posts